"The NICS check has nothing to do with the gun or the serial number."
You may be confused or just in error, when the serial number of the luger was checked,it kicked out as reported stolen. So it does have something to do with the serial number.
It has happened at least once, to me.
This was not a routine 4473 check, but a special serial number check as the dealer who transferred the luger was a pawn broker- who are required to report serial numbers that pass though their shop to local authorities. Who then check the nation wide data base.
It took about 4 months for the circle to close, but I did get a message from a detective in Missouri
that I had a "stolen" luger. And should return it to the owner's heirs.
Further complicating the issue is the fact that any 4 digit number can repeat on different lugers from different mfgs. and with or without a letter suffix. Letter suffixes do not always make it into reports.
Try explaining this to someone who knows nothing about lugers.
added 12-21-19:
As someone pointed out later, NCIS is for the background check and NCIC is for stolen items(serial number check).
More good info on "checking serial numbers" or not is in the posts below. Thanks to all for the clarification additional info and commiseration.
